Aussie coach to add steel to Scarlet defence

NEWLY-arrived Aussie defence king John Muggleton has hailed the Scarlets as “the perfect fit” for him.

NEWLY-arrived Aussie defence king John Muggleton has hailed the Scarlets as “the perfect fit” for him.

The man who played a key role in the Wallabies winning the 1999 World Cup has joined the West Wales region on a two-year contract with the aim of shoring up their “under-achieving” defence.

Muggleton appears ideally suited for that job given his track record. He spent 10 years as part of Australia’s coaching team, with the highlight of that time being the ‘99 World Cup triumph.

Under his defensive regime, the Wallabies conceded just one try in seven matches on their march to the Webb Ellis trophy – the solitary touchdown being scored by USA centre Juan Grobler in a group game in Limerick.

That’s an even meaner tournament record than the one Grand Slam winners Wales posted in this year’s Six Nations, when they leaked only two tries in five games with Shaun Edwards pulling the defensive strings.

And Muggleton – like Edwards a rugby league convert – proved his success in ‘99 was no fluke at the 2003 World Cup, when Australia once again conceded the fewest points and tries during the tournament before being pipped at the death by England. So the Scarlets appear to have made a real quality acquisition and the man himself is happy to be on board.

An impressive figure who obviously knows his stuff, the straight-talking 48-year-old feels this is the right move for him at the right time in his career,

“The Scarlets is a perfect fit for me,” he said. “It’s a chance for me to come in and broaden my experience as a coach and also work with a team of quality players that need your help.

“They are an under-achieving defensive side. There’s lots of ability there, but it just didn’t come to the fore last year.”

Muggleton, who takes his first session today, is also relishing the prospect of regular contact with his charges after so long on the international front.

“I enjoy the week-in, week-out situation,” he said.

“When I was coaching at North Sydney for five years in the mid-90s, I really enjoyed being in a club environment, because you can take players for a long period.

“You’ve basically got them for the whole year.

“As much as the Wallabies are a pretty tight group, they do come from four different teams, whereas at a club, that is the base of the group dynamic. It’s home, really.

“The idea of building a relationship over a long period of time appeals to me.”

Muggleton, who arrived in Wales last week to link up with new head coach Nigel Davies, is no stranger to these shores.

“I’ve spent a fair bit of time in the UK before,” he said.

“I had two seasons at Hull as a player in league and I toured here with the 1982 Kangaroos, when we played against Wales.

“I’ve also been here with the Wallabies on occasions and I enjoy it, I enjoy the people.”

The Scarlets leaked tries at an alarming rate last season, particularly in the Heineken Cup where they lost all six group matches, so how easy will it be for Muggleton to tighten the ship?

“Nothing is easy to solve,” he said. “Coaching is always difficult when you are trying to change behaviour and mentality. It’s a challenge. The thing I know from watching the players last week is they are talented and they do have footwork.

“It’s just a matter of me being able to mould them both mentally and physically into one unit because defence is really the only full team activity.

“If you looking at attack, you’ve got to win the lineout or scrum before the backs can use the ball.

“With the defensive line, everyone in the team must be switched on and they must be on the same page. You can’t rest in defence. Everyone has got to be working together.

“Talking to these players and being around them, I think they want to do that. They are keen to get started and that’s great for me because the hardest thing is to get the desire and the willingness to learn. The feedback and the vibe I am getting is that they are keen. They are looking forward to it. It’s a part of their game they want to improve. They do have a desire to be good defenders and a good defensive side.

“The skills are all there. It’s about putting it into a cohesive unit by starting small and then working it through. It’s not going to happen overnight, but we will certainly be working continually on it.”

Muggleton added: “What you’ll find over the next two years is that every time the Scarlets players are training on defence they will be defending as well as they can.

“We will be working in the first couple of months to make our defence very solid. We are not going to be fancy at all. Fancy defences, like rush-up and all that sort of stuff, they come later. They come after you’ve got everything else perfect. What we’ll do first is work on being a very tight and a very cohesive group and a group that’s hard to score against. When we do that, then we can work on being more aggressive on attacking with our defence.”

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